Post - LAC Regional Workshop on "Preparation and Submission of National Inventory Reports under the ETF of the Paris Agreement" [Bogotá, Colombia]
Representatives from 29 Latin American and Caribbean countries participated in the LAC reginal workshop to prepare their first Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs)
During the workshop held in Bogota, Colombia, representatives of different countries in the region gained new knowledge and tools on climate transparency and GHG inventories.
The “Latin America & Caribbean Regional Training on Preparation and Submission of National Inventory Reports under the ETF of the Paris Agreement” took place from 23-25 July in Bogotá, Colombia. The event was co-organized by the Partnership on Transparency in the Paris Agreement (PATPA), the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency - Global Support Programme (CBIT-GSP), and was hosted by the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) of Colombia.
More than 70 country representatives from 29 countries received training and participated in dialogues to analyze, review, and improve in preparing, reporting, and uploading their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventories and National Inventory Reports (NIR), which are key elements of BTRs and the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement.
Tim Bantel, LAC Regional Coordinator of PATPA, stated that transparency is key to the Paris Agreement because it allows countries to develop specific and ambitious targets, while at the same time helping to track them. "Transparency builds trust between countries and helps to increase the ambition in climate policies" he said.
Pia Zevallos, Libelula’s CEO and workshop moderator explained that transparency is a transcendental issue in the context of climate change: “At a national level it generates commitment from all actors in society regarding climate objectives and allows the construction of sustainable climate policies”.
Tools and new knowledge to enhance transparency
The meeting also provided updated tools and information for countries to report their Biennial Transparency Reports (BTR). “In this training, we looked into the new requirements and the modalities, procedures and the guidelines of transparency from the Paris Agreement. We explored the various tools that countries can use to compile their inventories. In particular, the UNFCCC reporting tools and the IPCC software, which are very important tools that countries can use” said Fatima-Zahra Taibi, CBIT-GSP Global Coordinator.
Chanel Hamilton, representative of the Bahamas, mentioned that transparency is very important for her country, particularly in reporting BTRs and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). She added that it is fundamental to be accurate and share information so that the world knows how much the Bahamas is emitting as a small island state. “Transparency is also important when it comes to the funding we receive for mitigation and adaptation” she highlighted.
Daysy Cárdenas, representative of Ecuador, emphasized that the country is working actively to strengthen its National Climate Change Registry, which is stipulated in the Organic Code on the Environment, and therefore is developing actions alongside international cooperation. “This workshop is very important for us because we are preparing our emission inventories, our 5th National Communication and our first BTR; so, the capacities that we have received in Bogota are fundamental” she indicated.
The presidency of the COP29 to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, has placed a strong focus on the presentation of the BTRs during this year’s COP. We hope that with the support of this training, all countries from Latin America and the Caribbean will manage to upload their first BTRs until the end of the year.